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Oysters, Au Gratin

Oysters, Au Gratin is baked oysters topped with butter, breadcrumbs, herbs, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oysters, Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a gratin dish.

  3. Mix breadcrumbs, parsley, herbs, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

Assemble

  1. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over the butter in the dish and moisten with white wine.

  2. Open the oysters, remove the gills, and place them in the dish, pouring the oyster juice over them.

  3. Cover the oysters with more breadcrumbs and dot with butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 10 minutes and serve in the dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Parsley + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and tender body that the crumb topping surrounds.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping and absorb the wine and oyster juice.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumbs brown in the oven.
White wine
Moistens the crumbs and adds acidity that balances the rich butter.

The step that matters

Open the oysters, remove the gills, and place them in the dish, pouring the oyster juice over them.. Keeping the oyster juice in the dish keeps the oysters moist as they heat. Overcooking makes oysters tough and shrinks them, so they need only a short bake.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, pepper, white wine):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, pepper, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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